Can Whole Rose Hips Be Planted in the Spring?

Simple roses often have the most plentiful hips.

Once you've enjoyed the beauty of your roses (Rosa spp.), pollinated flowers develop brilliant red to orange berries, called rose hips. Rose varieties are available to suit any U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones. Some varieities, like rugosa roses (Rosa rugosa) -- hardy in USDA zones 2 though 9 -- are known for their large and plentiful rose hips, but they are produced on all roses in varying sizes. Rose hips can be used to create preserves rich in vitamin C, dried for tea, left on the plant as a winter food source for birds or used to grow new rose plants.

About Rose Hips

Roses are in the same family as apples (Malus spp.), and like apples, rose hips are a fruit that contains seeds -- often from 25 to 40 -- rather than a seed itself. To get the best results from planting rose seeds, let rose hips mature on the plant until they have fully changed color; a few varieties stay green -- but most go from green to yellow, orange or red. Note that since most roses are hybrids or grafted on the rootstock of other roses, the seed your rose hips hold is unlikely to produce a plant that closely resembles the parent plant. The seeds from each hip are also likely to result in a slightly different rose.

Processing Rose Seeds

Planting the whole rose hip would be akin to planting an entire apple, you would have to wait for the exterior peel and inner fruit to decompose before the seed inside can germinate. Multiple seeds could then sprout too close together. Instead, pick the plumpest rose hips with the best color when they begin to split in late fall or early winter. Cut the rose hip open and scoop out the seeds. Cleaning the pulp of the hips off the hard seeds in a cup of water with a drop of bleach also helps sort good seeds from bad -- poor seed that won't germinate floats to the top of the water and can be discarded.

Stratification

Store harvested rose seed in sealable plastic bags or jars with a handful of damp peat moss, depending on when you harvest, your climate and how much control you want to have over the growing conditions of your new rose seedlings. You can plant your seed immediately in prepared soil outdoors if you are in a climate where winters are cool, but not severe and you left your rose hips on the plants until December or January and they experienced 45 to 60 days of temperatures below 40 degrees Fahrenheit. If not, store the seeds in their containers in your refrigerator for four to six weeks to simulate winter conditions. This technique, called stratification, tricks the seed into thinking it has gone through winter, making it ready to sprout when brought into warm temperatures.

Spring Planting

When conditions warm in the spring, or your 45- to 60-day stratification period is up, you can plant your rose seed in seed flats filled with vermiculite or seed-starting mixture indoors or out. Plant seeds 1/2 inch deep and water them well. Set them outside in full sun or in a protected area where there is still a danger of overnight frost and keep the tray moist. Indoors keep them well watered and in a cool location -- about 55 degrees Fahrenheit -- with lights on for about 16 hours per day. Seedlings can emerge in as little as two weeks once in warm conditions, but can take two to three months. Transfer your seedlings to pots when they are a few inches tall and to the ground when they outgrow the pot. It can take three years for a seedling to become a mature rose bush.

About the Author

Patricia Hamilton Reed has written professionally since 1987. Reed was editor of the "Grand Ledge Independent" weekly newspaper and a Capitol Hill reporter for the national newsletter "Corporate & Foundation Grants Alert." She has a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Michigan State University, is an avid gardener and volunteers at her local botanical garden.